Cain 1

Over the past couple decades online social networking has become a vital
aspect of communication in our society. But how exactly does using online modes of
communication affect online community members relationships and psychological
well-being? I hypothesize that there is a no doubt a positive correlation between
relationship maintenance and use of online modes of communication but a negative
correlation between an individuals well-being within a group and the use of online
modes of communication. To do this, we will be looking at a strange yet unique type
of a community. One which is focused around an activity that involves creativity,
ambition, and dedication.
Cosplay is a term which cleverly mixes the words costume and play to
create an activity which may be defined as a performative action in which one
dons a costume and/or accessories and manipulates his or her posture,
gesture, and language in order to generate meaningful correspondences and
contrasts between a given body and a set of texts from which it is modeled and
made to relate( Hale 8 ). Though I believe that Cosplay goes beyond the definition,
it has become more of a culture than just dressing up and acting like a
character form a series of any form ( manga, anime, novels, television, ect ) . The
interest in cosplay has been around for several decades and is an activity that the
average person, in modern day, has been aware of or participated in. Cosplayers of
all shapes, races, genders, and paths of life have come together to celebrate the
wide variety of interests- including Japanese culture, anime, manga, and
videogames.
Naturally, when people all have a common interest they may get together. In
this case, cosplayers and others with similar interests gather together for large
events called conventions. The convention scene can be described as an up-

Cain 2
close-and-personal look at the popularity of anime, manga, and gaming; the
connection between gaming and anime fans; the enthusiasm for both; and, the
amazing potential that existed for engaging young people ( Brehm-Heeger,
Conway, & Vale 14-16 ) These conventions can range from a small town of people
coming together to appreciate these cultures to huge convention attended by huge
celebrities and people from all over the nation. People travel from all over the
United States, as well as the world, to attend a convention for a weekend a few
times a year -- but what about the rest of the year? Cosplayers have adapted to
distance by using online modes of communication as facilitators to maintain their
relationships for the time between conventions.
Because of these distances other options of communication are needed to
maintain relationships. Online modes of communication, or more commonly known
as social networking , have become the answer to solving the distance problem
. Social networking may be defined as forms of electronic communication through
which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal
messages, and other content ( Social Media, Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary ). There are many forms of social media but the mode of online
communication that we will be focusing on for this research will the widely popular
website: Facebook. Facebook is an appropriate social media site to focus on since it
makes it easy for members of a community to find each other and establish groups
where they communicate privately with one another. Other forms of social media
like Instagram and Twitter do not have this same capability. But back to Facebook:
The site was created to digitize the legendary freshman-year "Facebook," and
allow students not only to gawk at one another's photos but also to flirt, network,
interact ( Hirschen, About Facebook ). It uses many genres to allow its users to

Cain 3
communicate with ease no matter the distance from one another and is an effective
way for cosplayers to join together in a community that shares their own interests.
Within Facebook there are many groups that can be created or joined by
anyone who has registered for a Facebook and allows for people with certain
interests to find others with the same interests. For the Jojos Bizarre Adventure
community, we will be looking specifically at the members of the group Jojo Florida
Enthusiasts ( JJFE) created by Marcus Casiano, a cosplayer and a well-known
member of the community. The group itself consists of a tight knit one hundred and
eight members- all living in Florida and with a common interest in cosplaying
characters from Jojos Bizarre Adventure. The series is described by a reviewer as a
1980s manga classic that has dapper fashion, occasional duo-tone, and bold yet
intricate pen lines that tell a Victorian tale of manhood, complete with an
archeological artifact that demands blood sacrifice ( "Jojos Bizarre Adventure, Part
1: Phantom Blood, Vol. 1." 72 ). Furthermore, the series acts as a centerpiece to the
group and connects all of its members by giving them a common topic and interest
to discuss.
Many studies have been done on the impact of Facebook on the relationships
between various people, and all have very conflicting results. Though one thing is
certain: that individuals spend a great deal of time developing and maintaining
relationships on Facebook ( Craig and Wright 126 ). We can see that Facebook is
used as a means of primarily maintaining relationships, but does it positively or
negatively aid in maintaining the relationship of those in the Jojos Florida
Enthusiast community? From a survey, I have asked the opinions of a variety of
different members about whether Facebook, specifically the Facebook group, has
had a positive or negative impact on the maintenance of their own relationships

Cain 4
with others within the same group. With thirty respondents, the findings were very
positive, despite a few that voiced their own challenges with their relationships in
the group. One member of the group, Marlene Newman, voices that "It can be
challenging at times, since Facebook groups tend to bring large gatherings of
people together with many different opinions. Though she proposes that when
there are regulations and rules involved it can work out well enough .
Despite the somewhat negative responses, there were also several positive
responses, including that of Kailey Boesch who expressed that " I'm a generally shy
person, it's helped me reach people who don't mind me and who seem genuinely
interested in me, as I am to them. And in fact helped me meet multiple of my now
best friends ". Despite some of the challenges that the members voice, overall
there seems to be an agreement that the Facebook group is positive for the majority
of the group members relationships with one another.
Like the impact of Facebook on relationships, there have been many studies
that measure the correlations between Facebook and many negative factors on a
persons well-being. The first would be the concept of someones self-esteem. In a
study conducted by Amy Gonzales and Jeffery Hancock, they hypothesized that
Facebook would positively impact a persons self-esteem when they witness their
own Facebook profile. In their experiment, they gave the subjects questionnaires to
evaluate their self-esteem at that moment in time, gave them the ability to view
and edit their own profiles on Facebook, and gave them a final questionnaire to
measure their self-esteem once more. In their results, it demonstrates that
exposure to information presented on ones Facebook profile enhances self-esteem,
especially when a person edits information about the self, or selectively selfpresents . Therefore, we can observe that Facebook in general may raise ones own

Cain 5
self esteem when viewing ones own profile and self-representation. In cosplay, this
is no different. A member of the JJFE community, who was chosen to remain
anonymous, has stated that "[Facebook] makes me self-conscious a lot of times,
and makes me feel left out liked by certain people . To see someone elses cosplays
on the group page, there is a possible correlation between viewing another persons
cosplay photograph and diminishing the viewers self-esteem. This concept may be
supported by another study which hypothesized that the more time spent on
Facebook the more negative the correlation there was between Facebook and selfesteem ( Kalpidou, Costin, & Morris 187 ).
Self-esteem goes hand in hand with the green-eyed monster , more
commonly known as jealousy. The emotion of jealousy no doubt runs rampant in the
Jojos Bizarre Adventure community as well as the entire cosplay community as a
whole. There is no doubt, especially with backing from a study done by Amy,
Christofides, and Desmarais. The study revolved around the concept that seeing
personal relationship information on Facebook would cause increased jealousy. The
methods the researched used involved an online, anonymous survey in which they
had the respondents give details on their relationship status and demographics
and then respond to questions that would place them on a jealousy scale. Their
results stated that data showed a significant association between time spent on
Facebook and jealousy-related feelings and behaviors experienced on Facebook .
Which means that there may be a negative impact on a persons emotional state
and well-being when their jealous feelings raise. An anonymous member of the
community came with me and stated to me that social media, especially within the
Facebook group of Jojos Florida Enthusiasts, makes you a jealous person. You see
all of these other people doing things and you're like Wow I wish I could do these

Cain 6
things too , but you can't. People only post the best of themselves to Facebook to
one up everyone else, and not anything that's wrong with them so it looks like
everyone is great all of the time, but they really may not be . Looking at their
comment, we can see that there is definitely issues of jealousy and emotions of
being left out within the community that have a negative impact on the
individuals within the community.
Looking broadly at these findings, we can recognize that online modes of
communication may result in negative impacts on a persons well-being, including a
diminished self-esteem, jealousy, and the anxiety that comes with the exposure to
an online community. But from a general point, from nearly all the members that I
interviewed from the Jojo Florida Enthusiast group, I have noticed that the
responses about the effects of the Facebook community on their relationships were
in the majority positive- while responses about well-being were a majority negative
within the particular community. I believe that a survey with a larger number of
respondents in a sample of different communities would create more support for the
research that I have conducted within a single community. The question that I feel
remain is how different the results would be if a community from another mode of
online communication were to be surveyed if the results would support the results
for Facebook. More research is definitely needed to comprehend the effects of
Facebook on the individuals of a community but the existing research heavily
supports the hypothesis that Facebook negatively correlates with an individuals
well-being and positively correlates with an individuals relationships maintenance.

Works Cited

Cain 7
Anonymous. Self-Esteem and Relationships on Facebook Interview. 26 July
2015. Online Interview.
Anonymous. Self-Esteem and Relationships on Facebook Interview. 26 July
2015. Online Interview.
Boesch, Kailey. Self-Esteem and Relationships on Facebook Interview. 26
July 2015. Online Interview.
Brehm-Heeger, Paula, Ann Conway, and Carrie Vale. "Cosplay, Gaming, and
Conventions: The Amazing and Unexpected Places an Anime Club can Lead
Unsuspecting Librarians." Young Adult Library Services 5.2 (2007): 14-6. Print.
Craig, Elizabeth, and Kevin Wright. "Computer-Mediated Relational
Development and Maintenance on Facebook." Communication Research Reports
29.2 (2012): 119. Web.
Gonzales, Amy L., and Jeffrey T. Hancock. "Mirror, Mirror on My Facebook Wall:
Effects of Exposure to Facebook on Self-Esteem." CyberPsychology, Behavior &
Social Networking 14.1 (2011): 79-83. Print.
Hale, Matthew. "Cosplay." Western Folklore 73.1 (2014): 5-37. Print.
Hirschen, Michael. "About Facebook." Atlantic 300.3 (2007): 148-55. Print.
"Jojos Bizarre Adventure, Part 1: Phantom Blood, Vol. 1." Publishers Weekly
262.11 (2015): 72-. Print.
Kalpidou, Maria, Dan Costin, and Jessica Morris. "The Relationship between
Facebook and the Well-being of Undergraduate College Students." CyberPsychology,
Behavior & Social Networking 14.4 (2011): 183-9. Print.

Cain 8
Muise, Amy, Emily Christofides, and Serge Desmarais. "More Information than
You Ever Wanted: Does Facebook Bring Out the Green-Eyed Monster of Jealousy?"
CyberPsychology & Behavior 12.4 (2009): 441-4. Print.
Newman, Marlene. Self-Esteem and Relationships on Facebook Interview.
26 July 2015. Online Interview.
Social Media. Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. 26 July 2015.